I, too, am an avid follower of the space program and the thought of Discoverys last flight makes me teary eyed. I have always called Discovery "my" shuttle... she is the ship that flew during both return to flight missions after the Challenger Disaster (launching on my 13th birthday in 1988) and then again after the Columbia disaster in July 2005 (and the first post-Columbia night launch in 2006)...
She is truely a historic "ship".. being the oldest in the fleet... she launched the Hubble, flew the last Mir/Shuttle docking flight, she flew the first female shuttle pilot into orbit, as well as the first African-American spacewalker and took John Glenn back to space (the first sitting member of Congress and also the oldest person at 77 years old)..
All Hail Discovery... God Speed her crew in a successful flight and safe return to Earth...
